SFSD-X Short Story Smackdown

3.3 Hamlet and Ophelia - The Renaissance

"We're not ready. Not ready at all. How did they find the rat bodies so fast? I had them wrapped in plastic. How is it all of you smell blood from a mile off, but I can't smell anything over the stench of your rotten bodies! Ha! Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Indeed, there is, my old man, indeed there is. Well, if they're early so be it."

Ted walked the perimeter of his white circle, pointing his remote towards different parts of the theater. "The drones will get everyone seated, and they will just have to be patient while we finish rehearsal. N'est-ce pas, darling?" He was close enough to tickle Ophelia under her chin and she jerked sideways to gnaw at his fingers with her molding gums.

"Ah, not now. Let's save the nibbling for later, my little kitten," he said. "We have business. Horatio has said his line, Ophelia enters, very ghost like - you look beautiful, very pale and unearthly - she says, 'Finding flowers faded and lovers false, I have thrown myself into the icy stream, but no comfort did I find in its embrace. Good man, I beg you, dry my tears if love in your heart does still reside. I shall tell you of Hamlet; how he is the author of my death and my return."

Pause.

"Is no one going to speak their lines today? Is that how it's going to be? I have to stand up here and do everything for you?"

A particularly loud bang from the lobby startled Ted, who took another quick swig from his flask. "I've seen worse dress rehearsals," he reassured himself, "but not many." The multi-task robots were buzzing and rolling back in forth between the lobby and seating area. They would take care of directing the audience, but it was up Ted and his untalented troupe to entertain them. This was shaping up to be a disaster.

Quick steps and light rattling came from the metal stairs that ran from the roof to the backstage, caught Ted's ear.

That was different.

Then a woman's voice calling, "Is someone alive down here? I saw the horde out front. Is anyone here? My convoy was attacked, but I am armed."

Ted wrinkled his face in confusion. That was very different. Normally, he didn't hear voices. He'd had a few visions in his time when he mixed drugs with alcohol (the memory made him chuckle), but strange voices? That was new.

"J.C. Superstar on a stick! These crappers are in cages!"

Ah, a fellow admirer of the theater - not many people remembered Broadway musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar anymore. Ted smiled.

"Hello, can anyone hear me? I need to know the layout of the city so I can get back with my people. I have some rations to spare if you can help me," the woman called.

"My fair lady?" Ted asked in his most polished diction. "Wherever you are standing, go immediately to a white line and follow it to the stage. The white lines are areas that make the least noise, so as to not disturb audiences during a play. Of course, this is just rehearsal, but I think it makes for a good habit to walk quietly. Don't you agree?"

This last question was directed to the woman herself. She had reached the floor and was aiming her pistol at his head. When he smiled and beckoned her forward, she lowered it slightly and took a careful step. Ophelia, Claudius and Horatio went into a new frenzy of snapping and clawing. They moaned, straining at their cords and collars in their efforts to attack.

The young woman whipped around, and would have begun shooting if Ted hadn't covered her hands to lower the gun. "These are my actors! They can't reach us here. Please, we are in the middle of rehearsal. No shooting."

It took her a moment to find her wits. Still holding her gun aimed at the zombies, she turned to Ted. "What....Look, I don't mean to interrupt anything you've got going here. Do you have a map of the city or could you give me directions to the military zone. We heard there was still a hold-out here." She glanced around agitated and licked her lips.

Ted studied the woman. Approximately twenty years old, good bone structure, wide eyes, hair was greasy, but blond and she stood straight. A bit young for a Gertrude, but that could be corrected with the right make-up. Although, she was obviously nervous to be on-stage. Jumping at every little noise, swinging her gun around and eyes all over the place.

"New to the stage, are you? We know what we are, but not what we may be. Everything becomes possible here. Do you act?" he asked calmly.

"No...I don't, I never have acted in anything."

"I see. Have you heard of Shakespeare? We are trying to put together a sequel to his wonderful play Hamlet."

"Hamlet? That's funny. We were in the middle of Hamlet in my English class when the virus struck. That was high school. I remember it, there was a line...."

"To be or not to be?" he asked. That was the line everybody knew.

"No, it was Ophelia who said, O, woe is me, to have seen what I have seen, see what I see. That line has stuck with me all these years."

Ted nodded, knowingly. "Hamlet has that sort of effect on the mind and soul."

"Well, that was the line the girl sitting next to me read out loud right before the teacher ate her face. It really resonated with me. So, about that map?" The woman kept her gaze going from the seats and lobby to the actors, back and forth. It was painfully obvious she had stage fright and hoped the audience wouldn't come in.

"Have you ever worked backstage, then, if you don't act?"

"Do you have a map? That's all I nee-" She broke off mid-word.

Ted turned to see what had her attention. He didn't see anything unusual. Lots of empty chairs he hoped to fill. His drones were still circulating, waiting for orders to let in the mindless hordes scratching at the steel doors in front.

"The Bots. You have Bots here. How is that possible? We've been looking for them, we need them and heard that the military zone here had perfected them just as the virus broke out. This is great! They can help us!" She smiled at Ted, and almost laughed.

He had his hand over his heart and a tender warmth in his eyes. "These robots work here, they escort the audience in and out to watch the shows. I couldn't create and perform without their help in the shadows. Which leads me to ask you again, would you like to work backstage? I could use someone who has good vocal cords to work as the Prompter. Reading lines to the actors?"

The woman swiveled her head back to Ted and raised her gun. "Why do you have the Bots? They should be at the military safe zone. How is it they are here and not....Did you take them? Is anyone else still alive? Tell me."

"My child, may I call you that? Theater is a world apart from the world. No matter how difficult or horrible things may seem, the show must go on. Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. Let me show how our world continues to thrive."

"A map or I blow your brains out. You have two seconds to decide if you want to be or not to be."